Path to Power
Jon Stevens Corzine, a lion of Wall Street, grew up on a farm in the tiny town of Willey Station, Ill. His dad, Roy, was a farmer who also sold insurance. His mom, Nancy, taught public school. And their son Jon seemed to excel at everything he did.
He was the quarterback of the Taylorville High School football team and captain of its basketball team. He made the basketball team at the University of Illinois as a walk-on and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1969. While serving a six-year stint in the Marine Corps Reserves, he earned an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1973.
Corzine married a woman he’d known since kindergarten, Joanne Dougherty, in 1969 and they remained together for 33 years until Corzine’s affair with Carla Katz, president of the Communications Workers of America, was publicly revealed in 2002. The Corzines divorced in 2003.
Business Career
Corzine began his career in finance in 1970 as a portfolio analyst at Continental-Illinois National Bank in Chicago while he was still in business school. He went on to work for BancOhio National Bank in Columbus, Ohio, before becoming a bond trader at Goldman Sachs in 1979.
He worked his way up to partner at Goldman in 1980 and co-chairman/co-CEO in 1994.Corzine is credited with turning around the financially-troubled investment house. But after succeedingin taking the private-partnership public he was surreptitiously stripped of his title and power by a group of Goldman executives led by his co-chair, Hank Paulson, the future treasury secretary under President George W. Bush.
Corzine cashed in when Goldman went public and in 1999 personally collected between $300 million and $400 million.
Senate Career
After leaving Wall Street, Corzine assembled a group of investors to take over a troubled hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management, when Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-N.J.) announced that he would retire in 2000. Corzine told New York magazine that “whether I put another zero on my net worth didn’t seem nearly as interesting or important” as running for Lautenberg’s seat.
Corzine faced ex-New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio in the 2000 Democratic primary, and early on trailed by 30 percentage points in polls. But Corzine started spending heavily, spreading money around to other Democratic candidates and political operatives and fueling an ad campaign that, at its peak, cost $2 million a week. By the end of the primary, he’d spent more than $30 million of his newfound wealth and beat Florio, who had his own problems, 58 to 42 percent.
During his run against four-term Rep. Bob Franks, (R-N.J.) in the 2000 general election, Corzine was accused of trying to buy influence in the black community when he donated $25,000 to the Black Ministers Council, a coalition of 600 churches, just months before the group’s influential leader, the Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, endorsed him. Jackson denied a connection between the money and the endorsement, saying the money came from Corzine’s charitable foundation not his political campaign.
On the eve of the election, Corzine’s campaign bused in residents of Philadelphia homeless shelters and halfway houses to work on get-out-the-vote efforts. Campaign aides later said it was done without Corzine’s knowledge. Corzine beat Franks, 50 percent to 47 percent.
Corzine arrived in Washington as the only former Wall Street CEO in Congress and emerged as the Democratic Party’s authority on financial regulation. From his perch on the Senate Banking Committee, he provided fellow Democrats with credibility when they called for stricter 401(k) protections, the regulation of hedge funds and expanded powers for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
With his Wall Street pedigree, the tall, bearded Corzine, who still favors sweater vests, proved an economic populist. He also became an indispensable link between Democrats and political donors on Wall Street. In 2002, Corzine took control of Democrats’ Senate campaign committee and helped his party match the money Republicans raised for the first time in three decades.
Corzine worked on the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as a key economic adviser and was mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary pick for a Kerry administration.
2005 Governor’s Race
Corzine was only four years into his freshman Senate term when McGreevey resigned. Seeing a chance to jump from a junior member of the minority to a chief executive’s chair, Corzine announced he would run for governor in 2005.
Corzine ran against Republican Doug Forrester, a wealthy businessman and former mayor. Corzine outspent Forrester $38 million to $19 million in what would prove one of the nastiest campaigns ever in New Jersey.
Corzine was criticized for giving, and later forgiving, a $470,000 loan to the head of a state union with whom he’d had an affair. Forrester fended off charges that his business, BeneCard Services, won no-bid contracts with local governments and accepted rebates from pharmaceutical companies to push higher prices on consumers.
Forrester ran an ad that included a quote from Corzine’s ex-wife that he “let his family down and he’ll probably let New Jersey down, too.” Corzine ran an ad featuring a quadriplegic man in a wheelchair who told voters, “Doug Forrester doesn't support embryonic stem-cell research. Therefore, I don't think he supports people like me."
Corzine won 54 to 43 percent.
Immediately, the man who believed government should play a greater role education and health-care funding faced the daunting task of balancing New Jersey’s budget and revamping a network of financial shortcuts that included using one-time revenues for on-going expenses and not fully funding the state pension fund. He had to balance his support for labor unions with calls for mandatory furloughs and layoffs of unionized state employees.
Following an April 12, 2007, high-speed crash on the Garden State Parkway, Corzine was hospitalized and for a time unable to continue his duties as governor. The state trooper driving the SUV at more than 90 mph and an aide in the car were injured, but not nearly as severely as Corzine, who was taken by helicopter to a trauma center.
Corzine was not wearing a seatbelt, despite a state law requiring it. His injuries included 11 broken ribs, a broken sternum, a broken collarbone and a facial cut that required plastic surgery. Doctors wondered if he’d survive. State Senate President Richard Codey (D) took control of the state until May 7, 2007.
Corzine left the hospital April 30, 2007, and was recuperating at home when, at his own expense, he had a video conferencing system installed so he could communicate with lawmakers. He voluntarily paid a $46 ticket for violating the state’s mandatory seatbelt law then made a public service advertisement advocating the use of seatbelts, which opened with the line, “I’m New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and I should be dead.”
Corzine paid his own medical bills rather than charge taxpayers.
2008 Reelection Campaign
Corzine’s troubles with winning reeelction were predicted as early as 2005 when he left the Senate. Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) left behind a state government mired in debt, marred by corruption and unable to meet basic responsibilities like fully funding its employees’ pension funds.
Corzine forced through difficult budget cuts and, in 2006, he shut down the state government after the New Jersey legislature refused to grant him a one-percent increase in the state sales tax. Lawmakers finally agreed, but required that part of the new revenue be used to reduce property taxes.
His struggles as governor forecast a tough reelection campaign. Though he had access to a lot of money (much of it his own), Corzine struggled to convince voters that he could turn the failling state around. By summer 2009, Christie was way ahead in the polls, but Corzine managed to close his lead. By election night, the two were neck-in-neck.
Corzine ultimately lost his election 48 to 44 percent.
